In Australia they have this thing called 'football'. Well we have that in the UK too but 'football' (sometimes fondly referred to as 'footie' means something different over here.
Football is a game played on a massive oval pitch with 18 players on each side. They kick the ball to one another out of their hands and others try to catch it. Then they have to kick the ball through some posts ... that pretty much it.
It appears to me that there are a couple of misconceptions relating to Aussie rules football:
The first one banded around by people in the UK is that it is very violent. 'There are no rules' and 'you can do what you like' being common points of views. This is incorrect as there are plenty of rules in Aussie rules football and it is barely more violent than what these crazy people call 'soccer'. The main issue with the game (it appears to me) is that the rules can be interpreted in about a million different ways by the 'umpire' (there are about 6 umpires so far as I can tell). This lead to a lot of berating of the ref (as with any sport)
The second is the myth that footie fans are rowdy. As a part of our 'trying to do as many Aussie thing as possible' campaign Lucy and I went last weekend to see the Collingwood Magpies take on the Sydney Swans. We were made to be Collingwood fans as the friend of ours who took us there is an avid supporter. Collingwood are notorious throughout Australia for having the most hated, violent, rowdy fans.
We saw none of that. The supporters for each team were mixed in together (if you did that in a European Football match, there would be death somewhere) and the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed. Most people hardly got up from their seats. Now thats my kind of live sport!
So for those of you who don't know what Aussie rules football is, here is a little taster:
(I was actually sat behind (one of) the sets of posts)
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